Weekend

The interns went with the Austin Stone group to Cabarete on Saturday. It was another relaxing day on the beach (man, life can be tough here!). Well, when I say relaxing, I am not including our trip on the guagua, where we fit 23 people into the smallest van I have been in yet! It was one that should have fit maybe 11, but was actually smaller than the last one we were in that was crowded. Grace got a picture, so hopefully I can post it soon. The trip to Cabarete is longer than our usual public transportation trips so we spent a good 30 or 40 minutes stuffed in there.

I don't know if I have mentioned the German bakery, but the German bakery in Cabarete is fabulous. And cheap. Each time we go, we get the most amazing pastries. So once we got to town, we immediately went to the German bakery and ate, then straight to the beach. I made the conscious mistake of not wearing much sunscreen in order to get some color on my fair skin, completely disregarding the way kids crawl all over me. So tomorrow I might have to suffer a little bit with my sunburned skin in the villages. That was bad deciscion number one. Bad decision number two involved an attempt at windsurfing. Standing on the board is easy, but trying to point the sail in the right direction is much harder. Let's just say I fell forward at one point and I have a bruise on my face that may or may not develop into a black eye. I will keep you posted on that. But the night finished with several of us sleeping on the roof after the Austin Stone group had their last devotions here and prayed for the staff staying. It was neat to have them lay hands on us.

Today started off great in that we went to church in Monte Llano and they asked us to sing for them. We got to go on stage and sing "Amazing Grace" and "I Love You Lord" and honestly, I was choked up singing. It was one of the coolest experiences. We serve a God that is bigger than our language barriers, and the people in this church truly worship. They sing without inhibition and they more than welcomed us, a bunch of Americans, most of whom did not understand a word, into their church. After, as many as possible greeted us with handshakes and kisses on the cheek. What a blessing!

The Austin Stone group left for Santiago after church because they are flying out in the morning, and the interns and staff came back to the Makarios house and had time to relax, dance, hang out, eat breakfast for dinner, and pray and love each other. It was awesome! Rose's pancakes tasted like funnel cake, I kid you not. I also got to video chat with Whitney for over an hour! That was just what I needed. It was great just to see her and Esco and her room and it made me excited for when I'm home. However, I'm in no rush. These past 11 days have flown by! It's unbelievable! By the way, our dance party was sweet. Lots of Michael Jackson.